Saturday, 10 May 2014

There are the classic fears of spiders, heights, and enclosed
spaces. The obscure and ridiculous ones such as a fear of socks, cotton wool or
losing phone signal (nomophobia is a genuine a phobia...I told you there are
some ridiculous ones). Worst of all are the subconscious ones which creep up on
you in your sleep and terrify you as nightmares. Whether you’re a hard nut who laughs in the
face of danger, or a massive hypochondriac who squeals when someone puts
mushrooms in their meal (like my fella), we’ve all got a fear.

Two years ago my biggest fears were spiders and heights. I
had vivid nightmares about being on the top floor of a shopping centre and
there being no railings to stop me tripping and falling off the side. I would pelt
out a horror film scream if even a tiny money spider crawled past me. With this in mind, my decision to go to Australia,
a country famous for its deadly spiders and dramatic cliffs and gorges, may
have seemed a little absurd. Yet determined not to let my fears control me, I
booked my one way flight and prayed for the best (no point in wasting money on
a return flight if I may not survive!).

It was very early morning when I arrived, but my spider
sensor kept me exceptionally alert. It began with checking the bus seat before
I sat down, and quickly escalated to insisting the windows be kept shut in the
hostel room despite it being a sweltering 38 degrees (obviously spiders can
only get in via windows and doors). As you may expect, I wasn’t the most
popular person in the hostel. On my first night in Oz I managed a meager 3
hours of sleep, and that was just because my boyfriend lied and told me that he
would keep watch to make sure no spiders crawled into my mouth while I was
sleeping. The ‘every person eats an average of 7 spiders in their lifetime’
fact becomes slightly more petrifying when you’re surrounded by red back and
funnel web arachnids (aka the killers!).

Yet somehow, amid showering with my poisonous eight legged friends and
trekking to gigantic gorges and waterfalls in the Kimberley, I overcame my
fears. The stupidity of having to be surrounded by an infestation of truly
deadly spiders to finally overcome my fear of them makes no sense to me, but it
worked. I now have two well fed daddy long leg spiders living above my front
door, and rather than squash them, I leave them there to eat all of the pesky flies, and to remind me not to let fear stop me from doing
anything. Give it a go; climb to the top of a tall building and peer off the
edge, dare yourself to take the lift, let a spider crawl across your hand
(maybe not a poisonous one though), and I bet you’ll feel proud afterwards. Take control and conquer your fears!